3D applications 2007 comparisons table

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Nice...

If you ever wanted starting in 3D creation today, you probably need to know with which 3D applications package with you will feel better and which is the most suitable for you and business ?

Many new CG artists try many softwares before really starting their 3D business, that's of courses the best solution to try out and know if you feel coMfortable with one than other, so after you can't know all specs of all 3D softwares when starting in 3D...

Here is a comparison table with cons. and pro. for the most know today top industries 3D applications. This table isn't intended to be complete with all softwares features available but try to surround the common today 3D cg artist tasks.

All softwares listed in this table was deeply tested during a total of about 12 months, during this 12 months, I installed all releases and Service pack (EDU, PLE, full softwares,...) and try to use all of listed softwares to do the same work with when I created my students classroom projects like (Motion, Realtime, Mag.Print, Architecture, Lowpoly, texturing,...)

I used all of this 3D applications in 10 past years, when I was working for companies in CG area, now it's relativly easy for me to switch from one to others and I have a good feeling with softwares interfaces...of courses that's always a long and a painfull tasks to switching but when you learned 2 or more package in 3D applications, technical features is always the same, the most difficult is to know where to found !

As I'm now CG Teacher / Educator, I will always say to my students the most important isn't the package, but technical understanding and that's a triangle will always have... 3 vertices :-) as in Autodesk 3ds max, NewTek LightWave, Blender,...

Also switching from one applications to others often is bad because you lose you feeling and way of works. When you are ready with one just stay on, don't listen to the sirens ! Each 3D applications is good and no one can be better than an others, today all 3D package can do all your dreams, you just must have ideas to do...

http://www.tdt3d.be/articles_viewer.php?art_id=99

taumel

And i thought there would be much more tools around...

MrTAToad

They missed out Truespace/gameSpace

taumel

He missed Modo, he missed Cheetah, he missed the different version of XSI, he missed Silo, he missed...

MrTAToad

Thats true :)

Davidh

just while modo raised its head

does anyone here use it, is it any good are the UV & paint tools as good as they look in the vids

i currently use lightwave 8.5 and Deeppaint 3d, so its either lw 9 update or modo

taumel

Well, i don't know what expectations you exactly have but yup they are working quite well. Once the bandwidth issues are over and they setup the demo, they wanted to offer a demo for 301 http://www.luxology.com/trymodo/ for a low fee. They don't want to do this for free anymore because a) pirate issues and b) they then also offer video material, so that you can get into the tool faster. If you're deciding to buy the tool the final price will be reduced by the fee you already payed.

Davidh

going off the vids for the uV and paint tools its a must have. i signed up for the demo a while ago, didnt know they were charging for it, i will have to see how much before i give it a try...thanks

taumel

No problem. Painting was kind of a drag in 20x days because you weren't able to paint over borders and is was crashing quite often at least on my system. But in 301 it's working without any problems so far.

By the way awful music but nice character on the bridge. How distortion free is the skydome on your site at the top. Is the model based on a normal or a geosphere or a subdivided cube?

Davidh

#10

the music is pure class ;)

the skydome is just a normal sphere cut in half, as for distortion ..do you mean the UV, if so there is none since i changed the UV , i did have some bunching on the top on the old ones, best thing to do is download it and give it a whirl it has a viewer

Tom

#11

Before I start, I'm a LW user.

Regarding the article:

Lightwave's been able to do cloth for years using motion designer.

I'd put forward a biased argument that it can pull off simple fluid simulation too, using it's native particle system with self interacting particles, i.e, you can 'fill containers' using it, I've done it myself. But strictly speaking that's a hack, all down to PR I guess :P

Hypervoxels as a 'top unique feature?'

They say it needs FPrime, Sasquatch & Dynamite to be 'film/production' ready. That's harsh. :) Lightwave's been used in film & production before those plugins even existed I think LOL. Of the 3, FPrime would be the 'must have', but by no means do you *need* it to do film/production work.

Now then, they missed out network rendering in the Rendering section, I wonder why? That's a crucial element of rendering in a professional environment.

Network rendering in LW has always been free! AFAIK, most other serious 3D applications charge a fair bit of money for each 'node' you wish to render on (can be quite costly!)

Other than that, that's a fair view of Lightwave. Can't speak for the others, never used them.

taumel

#12

@scribbla
Okay...

@Tom
Modo also offers free network rendering for a certain amount of nodes. Can't remember the number right now, 50?

AdrianT

#13

I still think 3dsmax is best because it consistently gets the best art pipeline support. It's usualy the first app to work directly with any given game engine.

And no one wants to juggle a plethora of 3rd party tools to get a half assed chance of putting good media in a game.

Collada and filmbox only go so far to making a generic format, and whether an engine supports them well is a bit hit and miss.

Native exporters for XSI and lightwave are fairly remote if your not using a fairly well established commercial engine.

Not that there is anything wrong with the other apps when it comes to making assets, its usually just that the art pipeline support is very poor compared to 3dsmax.

taumel

#14

That's the reason why it's clever supporting Autodesk's FBX...

Davidh

#15

@taumel

are you running modo 301 under vista, or do you know of any problems,

from the Luxology website
Microsoft® Windows 2000 or Windows XP
(Vista not yet supported)

taumel

#16

Nope i'm running it on OSX and XP here...

taumel

#17

Regarding Vista you might an to check out the forum...a message from a user:

*snip*
I am running Vista Ultimate and Modo runs perfectly well. No problems at all. You just need to make sure you are running the latest drivers from your video card manufacturer and not the ones that come with Vista or come off the CD that came with your card. BTW - I am running an Nvidia based video card.
*snap*

Picklesworth

#18

Interesting to see Blender holding its own there. One of its most prominent limiters still looks to be the interface; I really look forward to the day someone seperates the front / back end. (Then, after that, writes a GTK front-end).
I've never liked it in terms of art pipeline, though. Its import / export never works for me!

Mustang

#19

He missed Modo, he missed Cheetah, he missed the different version of XSI, he missed Silo, he missed...

Yup, missed SketchUp etc too but to my understanding there was a specific set of tasks he did with each tested suite. And Modo & Silo (AFAIK) are just modelers, meaning they are tools with way more narrow scope and capabilities than MAX/Maya/XSI/LW and thus weren't qualified to be tested featurewise.

taumel

#20

Well, i don't know what his specifications were but Modo isn't only about modelling as well as Cheetah isn't. Anyway it looked kind of a quick shot.

Mustang

#21

Anyway it looked kind of a quick shot.

Yes, definitely... and only one man's opinion in the end. But that might be still helpful comparison data for people who are wondering what to choose and to what task.

taumel

#22

Hmm yes and no. Better than nothing, yes but it's also questionable as it's misleading because it doesn't tell you the whole story and so likely lead you in the wrong direction. I remember a magazine which did a pretty well job on comparing a lot of tools on such a basis but it's not up to date anymore and i really can't remember the article...